Compal Electronics chairman Ray Chen stated during an investors conference on May 11 that the company will accelerate its pace for acquiring or investing in industrial PC (IPC) players and the company will also establish a holding company for the acquired or invested in industrial PC companies. The holding company is expected to have a business scale of NT$15-20 billion (US$487.8-650-41 million) by 2016 or 2017.

Compal is planning to conduct more than two acquisitions in 2015.

Since most Taiwan IPC players only have limited scales, Compal believes integration after the acquisition should not create many issues. Compal's acquisition of Avalue Technology was a success, and with Compal's assistance Avalue will be able to land orders that its was previously unable to.

As for the Internet of Things (IoT) business, Compal is aggressively seeking investment targets and will focus on players that have operations in the communications and smart home industries.

Compal is also planning to invest in some start-up companies for 3D printing and Big Data.

Chen said he has turned conservative about the notebook industry since Compal's notebook shipments in April suffered a worse drop than originally expected. For the second quarter, Chen expects Compal's notebook shipments to grow only 10-15% sequentially, down from the previous estimate of 15-20%.

Windows 10, which is set to launch in the second half, has caused consumers to postpone their notebook purchasing, said Chen adding that notebook shipments in May, June and July are unlikely to see any major growth, but will start picking in August and peak in September. Whether strong notebook demand is able to last into the fourth quarter will depend on consumer response to Windows 10.

Chen is also conservative about smartphone shipments and expects the overall volume to see weaker growth in 2015 than in previous years. He expects China's smartphone market to see only a single-digit percentage growth in 2016, while global shipments will decline about 10% on year.

As for whether smartphone shipments will be able to gain any further growth will depend on demand from emerging markets such as India and Indonesia, Chen added.